Everyday activities such as cooking often become difficult for people living with dementia. We have found that they can still do the physical bits, such as filling a kettle or peeling a potato. The problem is with the cognitive ‘glue’ that sticks the physical steps together. Research has shown that self-cueing can help children finish tasks. Self-cueing can also help people with aphasia communicate. Boosting self-cueing could help people living with dementia continue everyday tasks.

Can we boost individual’s self-cueing during everyday activities to maintain independence? We will break this into three questions: (i) How do people living with dementia self-cue during everyday activities? (ii) How do individuals without dementia self-cue during everyday activities? We will look at why cues succeed or fail in both groups. (iii)Use anwers to (i) and (ii) to generate self-cueing boosters and evaluate if they help people living with dementia carry out everyday activities.

Part (i) and Part (iii) will be carried out in the homes of people living with dementia. This is to maximise the benefits of familiarity and environmental cues during everyday activities. We will record them carrying out everyday activities. We will also ask them to describe what they are doing as they go along. Part (ii) will be carried out and recorded in the Home Lab at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute under controlled conditions.

Boosting self-cueing can support people living with dementia to continue their everyday activities. Maintaining independence can delay or reduce demands on family members or services. This can help people living with dementia stay at home longer. Maintaining independence in daily activities is also important for promoting a positive identity for people living with dementia. The findings can be extended to other activities that people living with dementia want to keep doing outside the home.

Difficulties with everyday activities often lead to families or home care services taking over cooking and laundry and other daily activities. This can speed up people with dementia losing their skills and independence. Once consequence can be moving into long term care. Supporting people living with dementia to continue with their everyday activities by boosting self-cueing can maintain their independence and allow them to age in place for longer.